This invention presents an approach for reconstruction of procedural three-dimensional
models of woody plants (trees). The used procedural tree model operates by recursively
computing all building parts of a three-dimensional tree structure by applying a fixed
procedure on a given large set of numerically coded input parameters. The parameterized
procedural model can later be used for computer animation. Reconstruction of a
parameterized procedural model from images is done by differential evolution algorithm
which evolves this model by fitting a set of its rendered images to a set of given reference
images. The comparison is done on pixel level of the images through the integration of
distances to the nearest similar pixels. The obtained results show that the presented
approach is viable for modeling of woody plants for computer animation by evolution of the
numerically coded procedural model. [1]
The reconstructed models are used within an environmental framework to visualize
emergent artificial forest ecosystems. The environmental framework simulates woody plant
forests which are used for visualization. A complex application software system develops and
animates a spontaneous afforestation process within this environment. The system considers
several environmental properties and combines computer animation with artificial life. The
main goal of the presented software system is to use it in computer animation for synthesis
of natural environments and visual analysis of their natural look credibility. The afforestation
process is modeled as an ecosystem simulation, where trees struggle for survival based on
several growth factors. A detailed description of the procedures for simulating tree growth
and the factors that might influence tree growth is provided. All the tree growth simulation
procedures and factors are biologically inspired. They have been defined mathematically in
the paper by designing a bottom-up agent model which emerges the artificial tree
distribution by mediating to the simulation. A flexible and adaptable procedural 3D model is
used to visualize trees. Also, growth of individual trees is animated, from development of
branch complexity to per-leaf precision, which allows a very realistic perception of the
emerging ecosystem. The visualization of trees is sped up so that the models of trees have
progressively lower-details proportional to the distance from a certain point of view.
Locations and maturity of visualized trees are obtained from the ecosystem simulation
results, and the afforestation process is animated over several centuries. The natural look of
the artificial tree distribution is confirmed visually and statistically. Visually, it is confirmed
from rendered sequences, and statistically, from graphs of tree species populations. Several
patterns emerge permanently, such as the number of trees in the ecosystem simulation
increasing exponentially and trees growing in communities. [2,3]